Guestology Chapter 2 PDF
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This chapter on guestology discusses the concept of guestology, focusing on customer expectations, the definition of value, and the types of customers. It examines the role of guestology in achieving customer satisfaction in the hospitality and tourism industry.
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GUESTOLOGY CHAPTER 2 CONTENT CHAPTER 2 GUESTOLOGY CUSTOMER TOPICS EXPECTATIONS QUALITY & VALUE CUSTOMER/GUEST/ CLIENT THE CUSTOMER AND...
GUESTOLOGY CHAPTER 2 CONTENT CHAPTER 2 GUESTOLOGY CUSTOMER TOPICS EXPECTATIONS QUALITY & VALUE CUSTOMER/GUEST/ CLIENT THE CUSTOMER AND DEFINITION OF VALUE OBJECTIVES 01 02 define what determine the guestology is and predictors of what a guestologist customer is; expectation; 03 04 identify the different determine who types of customers; defines value and and quality. Many establishments and organizations are doing everything to improve the level of quality service through the performance of the employees. Others develop their systems. All of these are deemed effective, but sometimes, what we often forget is that the center of the service concept is our guests. This would be the focus of our study the concept of Guestology. Reality Bites Arlene and Rochelle dined at a restaurant in llollo which is very famous because of its excellent local food and incomparable hospitality. As they approach the restaurant. they were immediately welcomed and greeted with warm smiles from the staff. After asking how many they are in the group, Sheryl, the food attendant, pulled out each chair and made sure that everyone was comfortably seated. Right after, she gave the menu and take order to each of the members of the group and in no less than 15 minutes, the food was delivered impeccably. Sheryl rushed over, making sure that the food was served hot and was served respectively to the specific members of the group. The group was really amused with the sumptuous food that was served to them, As another set of food was delivered to the table, Sheryl became puzzled. There was no more space on the table where the dish will be placed and it seemed that the party was really enjoying their dining experience; Sheryl was hesitant to disturb. So, what she did was to grab the rice platter and offered it to the person in the group whose appetite was very good. She emptied the platter to him/her and the person was really elated as this is not a usual thing for a food attendant to do. but still she thought of the idea so that she can now place the next dish on the table. Arlene and Rochelle, now very much grateful, shared their experience to their friends and relatives, reminding them to always make a stop in this restaurant whenever they are in the region. Truly, Iloilo at its best hospitality! For us to understand what it means to be a guest, we should now understand what hospitality is as our guest is an outcome of the hospitality that we give. SERVICE Service providers today are focusing on making things right rather than making people feel great. Service is the sequence of acts, tasks, and procedures which are done with consistency. It is the mechanics, the logistics, and how-tos of any process. HOSPITALITY Hospitality is the positive emotional response elicited from our guests. hospitality is about anticipating the needs and wants of our guests, expressed and unexpressed. In simple term, Hospitality is all about making your guests feel welcome and comfortable. Customer service, on the other hand, is about meeting the needs of your customers and helping them to solve any problems they may have. GUESTOLOGY Dickson (2010) defined guestology as the scientific study of the behaviors, needs, and expectations of people in a service environment, and how to use that knowledge to optimally manage a service organization. The concept that Bruce Laval, the father of guestology, introduced has now become a science that deals with understanding the guest. Guestology entails studying the totality of the guest experience, from their expectations down to the results and feedback. Klein (2014) For customer satisfaction and customer service to be achieved, a complete and proper understanding of customer expectations is very important. Unless the establishment already knows what the customers want, what they expect, and who they are, it will be very difficult to match up to the expectations. A guest who will dine in a restaurant for the first time will have a different expectation than a guest who has been in the restaurant for a couple of times. It is important that we note of their likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and profile as these would be the baseline of our entire operations. The reality right now is that customer expectations are continuously changing, and unless companies are attuned to them, they will fall short of these expectations, leading to customer dissatisfaction and attrition. Planning for customer satisfaction is really important in this case as this will be the platform for the design of the experience. This is the role of the guestologist. It is very important that everything is in place when the guest's senses first come in contact with anything about your establishment, so the role of the guestologist is very critical. Establishments geared toward delivery of services in tourism and hospitality should always be careful not to over-deliver the said services. As our guest becomes more exposed to what we offer, he/she becomes more complex and, as such, is accustomed to rely on our decision-making skills to look what best to give to them. If a guest were to enter a fast-food restaurant with tables lined with expensive linen, he/she would be expecting the levels of a casual or fine dining restaurant. Some would say that this is delighting the guest, but it is also important to think that a guest may also think that this restaurant is too expensive to dine in. Guests would want that their expectations to be met, no more, no less. Food attendants or waiters should literally "wait" for their guest when dining in a restaurant. Anticipating guest needs is one of the primary responsibilities of a waiter and that he/she should be good at it. Depending on the service desired, most of our guests have general similarities when it comes to their expectations. Eliz et al. (2012) noted in their article that even in luxury hotels, there are till basic problems that are actually unresolved, and with social media around, fuests have esty acrest to flaunt these problems which sets a springboard for other problems. They enumerated a number of problems in their article which are the following: Rooms - with concerns extending from small sized rooms to rooms with no modern technology. Arrogant and/or clueless staff - with comments ranging from staff being rude and no answers to questions posed. Failure to respond - mainly covering staff's failure to respond to guest complaints. Poor delivery - covering complaints such as late service or wrong room service and long process for check-ins/outs. Cleanliness - with criticisms on soiled linen, carpet stains, and hair trapped in bathtubs. Amenities and utilities - with problems associated to the lack or inadequacy of toiletries and items in minibar. Billing - with guests grumbling about having them charged extra for parking, Internet, gym, and the like. Customers/Guests/Clients Customers, otherwise known as guests and clients, in the hospitality and tourism business play a significant role in the operations. To understand their behavior and to strategize the efforts of the company, it is important to identify and match each need to each type of customer. The Corporate Finance Institute (2015) has identified five basic types of customers that a hospitality and tourism enterprise should be aware of. They are our loyal customers, impulse customer's, discount customers, need-based customers. and wandering customers. The loyal customers are actually the most important segment to please and should be one of the priorities in mind of a specific company. Usually, this type of customers represents no more than twenty percent (20%) of the customer base but actually drives majority of the sales revenues. Impulse customers, meanwhile, are the best type to do suggestive selling. They are also second to loyal customers when it comes to attractiveness in the market. As the name implies, these customers do not have a shopping list in mind and do shopping instinctively. Another type of customer which affects a company's inventory turnover is the discount customer. They are contributory to a company's cash flow because the products which are seldom purchased at full price are actually availed by these customers as best markdowns. The last type of customer is the wandering customers. These customers generate the largest amount of traffic as they have no specific need or desire in mind but yield the smallest percentage in sales revenue. This type of customers enjoys social interaction while shopping. The measure of quality for the guests is actually based on the difference between their expectation and their experience. By reality, it means what the guests have experienced in actual sense. But if a person is not satisfied with either the service provided or the product given, then we can say that he/she experienced a negative quality. When evaluating quality, one needs to realize that quality can be high or low regardless of how it costs the company. Value, in relation to quality, would entail the study of costs. To measure the value derived from a guest experience, we need to match if the costs incurred total or equal to the quality of the experience. Therefore, the time, effort, and money should be studied very closely by the planners of the service experience so as to have a meaningful guest experience. 7000 HE T 6000 CUSTOMER 5000 4000 AND 3000 DEFINITION 2000 OF VALUE 1000 0 2021 2022 2023 Since the tourism and hospitality industry is a guest-centered or customer- centered industry, ultimately, it is the customer who defines value. For the guest, the quote, "To see is to believe," works so much. The output will be the ultimate measure whether a service design has been crafted excellently. If the guests are dissatisfied or not happy with the outcome, it does not matter if they have followed correctly the process.